By Placido Salazar USAF Retired Vietnam Veteran
Senator Barack Obama promised that
As soon as I become President I will deliver a full-service VA Hospital to our Rio Grande Valley Veterans." Mister President the time to fulfill your campaign promise is
NOW.
Our Veterans in South Texas take campaign promises very seriously. We have waited long enough. In these times when our country is nearing financial collapse how prudent or financially responsible is it to be paying for the medical care of our Veterans and Wounded Warriors many-times-over to the private sector as compared to the PROVEN lower VA cost-per-patient and medication?
Building a VA hospital in the Rio Grande Valley would enable Veterans served by Audie Murphy to get follow-up appointments closer than the up to TWO YEARS APART many have to wait. No American soldier should ever be sent into a combat zone if proper medical care for his/her wounds will not be readily-available closer than
FIVE HOURS AWAY.
The Rio Grande Valley Veterans March that will likely begin in Edinburg and arrive in San Antonio on March 20 with the ultimate goal of meeting face to face with South Texas Congressmen Ciro Rodriguez Charlie Gonzalez Henry Cuellar and Lamar Smith as well as with VA Network Director Tim Shea and with Coastal Bend Director Jeff Milligan in the presence of the media.
As a Valley-Born" Vietnam Veteran myself (Edcouch 1939 Model) I fully support the effort by our youngest generation of Valley Veterans to pick up the torch for a full-service 24/7 VA Hospital and not let it fall or go out until we get some action.
With previous legislation ( S-1838 and H.R.538); our Veterans were misled into believing that this called for building a VA hospital in The Valley." Now we all know
THE TRUTH AND WE ALSO KNOW THAT NO EFFORT WAS EXERTED BY ANY OF OUR LEGISLATORS TO EVEN TAKE THESE BILLS OUT OF SUB-COMMITTEE. THIS TIME AROUND WE WANT ACTION! We are getting too old and too sick to put up with anymore games.
We keep reading of full-service VA Hospitals/Medical Centers being built in other areas of the country but our Valley Veterans who have been fighting for a full-service facility for DECADES are being spoon-fed by enlarging the clinic in Harlingen and with contract private-sector" medical care. I would hope that these private-sector contracts" in no way represent paybacks to rich doctors for their huge political contributions during this past election sacrificing proper VA medical care for our WARRIORS in the process.
Perhaps in an apparent effort to stall for time; probably guessing at a different recommendation/outcome Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison called for a study to determine the need for a hospital by Booz-Allen-Hamilton. BAH came out with the following:
Sector Two Service Delivery Options (Harlingen-McAllen)
Build a New VAMC
• Option S2.1: Build a *Small VA Hospital with Inpatient and Specialty/Primary Care Outpatient Capabilities (Harlingen or McAllen).
- Note: This initial Small VA Hospital could always be expanded as enrollment increases and beds are filled but would provide IMMEDIATE financial relief to the very impoverished families who must travel to Audie Murphy for almost any procedure also eliminating further hardship on the patients loved ones to visit the recuperating Veteran in San Antonio.)
Contract for Care
• Option S2.2: Contract with a Health System/Health Plan to Provide Inpatient and Specialty Outpatient Care
• Option S2.3: Contract with McAllen Medical Center for Inpatient Care and Collocate Leased Space for a VA Specialty Outpatient Clinic
SECTOR ONE (Corpus Christi Coastal Bend) is only
HALF the distance and travel time to San Antonio and should not even figure in this discussion.
Booz-Allen-Hamilton further reinforced what is common knowledge: That a VA-owned and VA-staffed facility can treat Veterans for a small fraction of what a private-sector hospital SOAKS Medicare/Medicaid. A VA-Staffed facility in The Valley would also avoid having Wounded Warriors/Veterans with serious combat wounds or unkwown chemicals" contamination being cared for by University apprentice doctors." Or would any VA or political official dispute the fact that American Warriors and Veterans have earned
THE VERY BEST MEDICAL CARE IN THE WORLD paying for it with their blood?
I invite all our Veterans from Private to Retired Generals also our City and County Leaders State Representatives State Senators US Representatives Ciro Rodriguez Charlie Gonzalez Henry Cuellar and Lamar Smith to greet our newer generation of Rio Grande Valley Veterans to Military City USA San Antonio TX. We have continuously let our troops down - So NOW is the time to let each one of them know that
AMERICA APPRECIATES THEIR MANY SACRIFICES.
We must make
WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS" much more than hollow words. South Texas Let us show our
BRAVE WARRIORS the full support of every American and let our screams of
WELCOME" reach all the way to the ears of our BRAVE TROOPS who are still risking their lives in the combat zones of Iraq Afghanistan or anywhere else around the world.
Please note this excerpt from the BAH study with special emphasis on
THE LAST LINE which I underlined:
However the suitability of options involving contracted services is largely dependent on the nature of the contracts established. As previously described in the Market Assessment Report the VA has contracts in place with community providers in the HarlingenMcAllen area. However these contracts are either written or have been interpreted in a restrictive manner making it difficult for clinicians to determine who is eligible for contracted care and making veterans anxious about their financial vulnerability if they are admitted to a private sector hospital.
Because of the nature of these contracts it is currently impossible to guarantee to veterans prior to admission that their care in private sector hospitals will be fully covered.
